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Wardrobe plywood calculator
An 8 ft wide hinged wardrobe needs about 12 sheets of board. Each sheet is 8 × 4 ft. The box, the doors and the back each use a different board, so each gets its own sheets. The doors use a moisture-resistant board (HDHMR), not plywood. Your maker's cutting plan sets the final count.
Example: 8 ft wardrobe
12
sheets of 8 × 4 ft board
- about 8 ft (2438 mm) wide
- 7 ft 6 in (2286 mm) high
- about 2 ft (600 mm) deep
- No loft, standard inside
Wardrobe plywood calculator
Which board goes where
Box board6 sheets
- Board
- 18 mm finished board (16 mm BWR plywood core + laminate on both faces)
- Used for
- sides, dividers, top, wall-fixing rails, floor, fixed shelves, plinth, plinth returns, drawer fronts, drawer sides, drawer backs
- Board area
- 14.57 m²
- Share of the sheets used
- 81.6%
Door board (shutter)3 sheets
- Board
- 20 mm finished board (16 mm HDHMR core + face laminate and back balancer)
- Used for
- doors, gap strips
- Board area
- 5.36 m²
- Share of the sheets used
- 60%
Back board3 sheets
- Board
- 8 mm finished board (6 mm plywood core + laminate on both faces)
- Used for
- back panel, drawer bases
- Board area
- 6.55 m²
- Share of the sheets used
- 73.3%
What else you buy
- Edge band for doors and gap strips
- 26.9 m
- Edge band for the box and drawers
- 108.8 m
- Plus 3 pairs of drawer runners and 1 hanging rail.
- 20 hinges
Edge band is the thin strip that covers the raw edge of a board.
What this assumes
- Sheets are 8 × 4 ft (2,440 × 1,220 mm).
- This is an estimate. Your maker's cutting plan decides the final count.
- Counts, not prices. No glass or mirror doors.
For wardrobe makers: cabinets, door size and every count
The wardrobe
- Cabinets
- 2 × 1199 mm
- One box with one or two doors.
- Doors (shutters)
- 4
- Cut size 596.5 × 2,208 mm each.
- Gap strips (fillers)
- 20 mm at each end
| Board | Boards | Area |
|---|---|---|
| 8 mm back panel plywood | 5 boards | 6.55 m² |
| 18 mm carcass plywood (BWR) | 41 boards | 14.57 m² |
| 20 mm shutter board (HDHMR) | 6 boards | 5.36 m² |
| Total | 52 boards | 26.47 m² |
| Board | Sheets | Used |
|---|---|---|
| 20 mm shutter board (HDHMR) | 3 sheets | 60% |
| 18 mm carcass plywood (BWR) | 6 sheets | 81.6% |
| 8 mm back panel plywood | 3 sheets | 73.3% |
| Total | 12 sheets |
How we count
We build the wardrobe for your wall, then count every board it needs.
Each board thickness gets its own 8 × 4 ft sheets. We leave 5 mm at each sheet edge and 4 mm for each saw cut.
Door boards keep their grain going up, so we never turn them. No sheet is fully used: offcuts always remain.
For wardrobe makers: how every number is counted
The example is 2438 × 2286 mm (≈8 ft × 7 ft 6 in), 600 mm deep, with no loft. It splits into 2 cabinets of 1199 mm with 20 mm and 20 mm of filler strip at the ends, and 4 doors cut 596.5 × 2,208 mm each.
The box (sides, top, bottom, shelves, plinth and the rail the wall bracket screws through) is an 18 mm finished board (16 mm BWR plywood core + laminate on both faces). The drawers sit inside the doors and are cut from the same box board: fronts, sides and backs. Doors and filler strips use a 20 mm finished board (16 mm HDHMR core + face laminate and back balancer). The back and the drawer bottoms are an 8 mm finished board (6 mm plywood core + laminate on both faces).
The example's 52 boards split 41 boards, 14.57 m² of box board, 6 boards, 5.36 m² of door board and 5 boards, 6.55 m² of back board.
Each thickness is laid out on 2,440 × 1,220 mm sheets. Our sheet count trims 5 mm off every edge, leaves a 4 mm saw cut, places the widest boards first and never turns a door board. The example comes to 6 sheets, 81.6% used on the box board, 3 sheets, 60% used on the door board and 3 sheets, 73.3% used on the back board: 12 sheets. Single-job estimate — re-nest before cutting.
Doors get the thicker door band on all four edges; every box board, the drawer parts too, gets the box band on all four edges; gap strips get the door band on the one edge you see; backs and drawer bottoms get none. The example needs 26.9 m of the door band and 108.8 m of the box band.
Each 596.5 × 2,208 mm door takes 5 hinges: 20 hinges for the 4 doors. The drawer cabinet takes 3 pairs of drawer runners and the hanging space takes 1 rail.
A 10 ft (3048 mm) wall through the same rules takes 63 boards and 15 sheets.
The calculator takes walls of 900–4800 mm, heights of 2100–2400 mm, depths of 350–700 mm and lofts of 300–900 mm (default 750 mm). A size outside moves to the nearest limit and the result says so. A plain number of 100 or more is read as millimetres; one foot is 304.8 mm. Counts, not prices.
Sources
Related pages
- Tool
Cutting list sheet estimator
Paste a cut list (length × width × how many, up to 40 lines) and get a range of 8 × 4 ft sheets to buy, per board thickness. Area only, no layout.
- Tool
Wardrobe size calculator in feet and mm
Type your wall width and height in feet or mm. See how many doors fit, how wide each door is, the gap strip at each end and the loft height for that wall.
- Resource
A wardrobe cutting list, explained
A real cutting list for a 3600 mm wardrobe with drawers: 63 boards in 44 rows, each column explained, plus a blank CSV template (column headers only).
- Comparison
MR (commercial) vs BWR vs BWP plywood
Commercial plywood is often MR. IS 303 grades MR, BWR and BWP for water duty. A reference factory wardrobe puts BWR on the box alone; the doors are HDHMR.